Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring,” starring Emma Watson, was one of the first big debuts out this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the early reviews are in. Most praise the movie and its performances, and many note the similarities between “Bling Ring” and two movies from earlier this year, “Spring Breakers” and “Pain & Gain.”
To get a sense of what the critics at Cannes are writing ahead of its June 14 U.S. premiere, we’ve sampled a few early reviews of “The Bling Ring.” Check them out below.
The Story
“The Bling Ring, as you may not have surmised from the film’s coolly oblique marketing, was a group of well-to-do Los Angeles teenagers who, over a 10-month period in 2008 and 2009, managed to steal over $3 million worth of personal property from celebrities including Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Megan Fox. How did they do it, you ask? They just walked in: in the way that good things so often come most easily to those who most expect them, the doors to these plastic palaces were left mostly unlocked.” — Guy Lodge, HitFix
The Performances
“Always adept at directing young performers, Coppola encourages fine work here from her cast of mostly newcomers, with Watson taking special relish in shedding her goody-two-shoes ‘Harry Potter’ persona. Broussard also makes a strong impression as the wallflower with a yen for fuchsia stilettos.” —Scott Foundas, Variety
The Direction
“Perhaps even more here than in her other films, Coppola’s attitude toward her subject seems equivocal, uncertain; there is perhaps a smidgen of social commentary, but she seems far too at home in the world she depicts to offer a rewarding critique of it. At the same time, she’s too unemphatic a filmmaker to deliver what could be construed as an exposé from the belly of the beast. It’s more like a teasing, mildly titillating pulling-down-the-covers off some naughty but hardly grave adolescent behavior.” —Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
The Final Word
“There is something in [Coppola’s] unjudging approach that is unexpectedly appropriate — and effective. It lets her get up close and personal to the story and characters, which conventional irony (from a director like Larry Clark or a writer like Bret Easton Ellis) wouldn’t get near. And it lets you experience the creepiness for yourself, helped by the cool, clear ‘reportage’ cinematography of the late Harris Savides, in his final movie.” —Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
No Comments